The IBJJF world championships comes around every single year both in the gi and out of it, the ADCC world championships happen every two years with eight qualifying events leading up to it, and there’s an endless amount of BJJ competitions and superfight events in between. There’s such a phenomenal amount of content available to watch on the sport that it might even seem like a full-time commitment. But realistically, if someone is looking to develop their BJJ skills then finding out what the best on the planet are doing is an obvious path to success.
Many people don’t see BJJ as a spectator-friendly sport, but there are several rulesets that have been created to drive the action and entertain the fans as much as possible. It’s not just rulesets that make a difference though of course, as some athletes are just inherently exciting and will always look to find the finish at all costs. If you’re one of those people that don’t find a huge deal of entertainment from watching the sport then finding a ruleset or a competitor that you like watching can often be a good way to maximise your enjoyment.
The accessibility of Jiu-Jitsu in the 21st century is sometimes it’s downfall. For every fantastic online resource out there, there’s a dozen more videos showing flashy or impractical techniques that aren’t actually worth putting any time into learning. When you first start out it can be incredibly difficult to actually separate the two, because some techniques look simple but aren’t effective and some may look crazy but are actually very useful. Watching elite competition removes that ambiguity though.
If you see Gordon Ryan do a specific sweep in his upcoming match with Andre Galvao, you know for a fact that it’s something worth learning seeing as it works on one of the best grapplers around. Not only can it help you identify areas that work well at the highest levels and might be worth adding to your repertoire, but it can also be a way for you to continue developing your skills even when it’s not possible for you to spend any time on the mats due to injury.
All in all, watching elite BJJ competitions is a fantastic way to increase your rate of improvement and anyone looking to succeed in the sport would be foolish to overlook it as a training tool.
Both the ADCC and IBJJF world championships and various other BJJ competitions are available to watch on FloGrappling both live and as a replay after the fact, click here to subscribe and watch.
